Once again, we are proud to host the Carnival of Nuclear Energy Bloggers, right here at Yes Vermont Yankee. The Carnival is a compendium of nuclear blogs that rotates from blog site to blog site, and it is always a pleasure and an honor to host it. Here we go!
At Fukushima, Radiation Decreases in Turbine Building Basements
From the Hiroshima Syndrome's Fukushima Commentary - Leslie Corrice
The Japanese Press routinely reports on sudden increases in wastewater radioactivity at F. Daiichi. However, they fail to report on what is going right. For at least a year, the activity levels in the turbine basements of units #1-4 have been steadily dropping. This is definitely a success story, but it does not seem newsworthy enough for the Japanese Press.
Yucca Post-Closure Safety Report Finally Released
From ANS Nuclear Cafe - Jim Hopf
Jim Hopf details the recent release of the Safety Evaluation Report on Yucca, what it means, and more importantly what's likely to be done and not likely to be done as a result of it. Nuclear waste is an entity we're prepared to deal with, Hopf argues, and for that reason Yucca should be opened and utilized to satisfy the Federal Government's legal obligation to take spent fuel from nuclear plant sites.
Time for a Battle and an Update on Radiation Risk
Atomic Insights - Rod Adams
An epic struggle with important health, safety, cost and energy abundance implications is shaping up with regard to the way that the officially sanctioned science and regulatory bodies treat the risks and benefits associated with using ionizing radiation at low doses and dose rates for medical uses, industrial uses and power production.
We must make sure that this battle for science, hearts and minds is not as asymmetrical as the one fought in the period between 1954-1964. During that battle, a very interested Rockefeller Foundation provided the funding and numerous key influencers during a successful campaign to firmly establish the myth that radiation is dangerous even at the lowest possible doses.
More Battles: The Supposed "Clean Power Plan"
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| Carbon Dioxide |
From ANS Nuclear Cafe - Nicholas Thompson
Nick Thompson gives the details you need to know about the EPA Clean Power proposal, and why it's not the boon for nuclear energy some have lauded it as. Includes background links for more information. Includes links for submitting YOUR comments on the plan this weekend. Comments due by December 1!
Vermont Yankee: Consequences of a Battle We Lost
From NEI Nuclear Notes - Meredith Angwin
Meredith Angwin documents the spreading pain of Vermont Yankee's closing--starting with the plant employees who will be laid off, and pain propagating through the local towns, on to the grid, and up to the state level. Her post, at NEI Nuclear Notes, is part of an NEI report on closing the plant, a report that includes the effect of the plant closing on New England's energy crisis and on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. The full report: Closing Vermont Yankee: Carbon, Market Impacts of Closing the Vermont Yankee Plant. |
| Existing power plants at Hinkley Point Wikipedia |
Neutron Bytes - Dan Yurman
The financial future of the French state-owned nuclear giant has become less certain and some worry it may threaten the viability of the UK’s Hinkley Point 3200 MW new nuclear build.
Northwest Clean Energy - Meredith Angwin
Why Do They Listen to Alvarez?
At the Northwest Clean Energy blog, Meredith Angwin notes that Robert Alvarez has now written a report about Columbia Generating Station. This report rehashes the testimony he gave in Vermont about Vermont Yankee in 2013. She reviews his qualifications and his report and asks: Why Do They Listen to Alvarez?
Safety Culture Everywhere
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| Graphic from Wikipedia |
Trains and Boats and Planes...and Nuclear Power Plants
Gail Marcus writes at Nuke Power Talk about her presentation on safety culture at a meeting in Chicago, and her subsequent experience with a failure of safety culture. Yes, on her way home from the meeting, she had a first-hand experience with a safety culture failure. (Gail...did you ever find out how the plane's wing hit a barbed wire fence?) All's well that ends well, but her trip home pointed out how important safety culture is, whether on trains, boats, planes or in nuclear power plants.
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| Monazite (thorium mineral) |
Nuclear Power and Noah's Ark
Energy Reality Project - Rick Maltese
Noah Nuke Advocate
Rick Maltese's parable begs the question: Will we wake up to the reality in time? Obviously the warnings were there for Noah but when will we know? We know what we've been doing wrong but do not know how to change. Time to act. Alone or collectively.
Fundraiser: Crowd Funding for a Pro-Nuclear Presence at AGU
ThoriumMSR - Rick Maltese
Renewed efforts to spread the word about MSRs bigger than ever
Rick Maltese plans to go to the annual AGU (American Geophysical Union) Conference. Approximately 24,000 scientists and policymakers come to this conference in San Francisco, which runs from Monday December 15 to Friday December 19. Rick will be representing the Thorium Energy Alliance of Silicon Valley (TESV), and his own Energy Reality Project. Join him at TESV booth 2617: this booth sits directly across of the booth of the Union of Concerned Scientists. Contribute to crowdfunding Maltese's important effort.
Nuclear Good News on New Builds
Next Big Future - Brian Wang
Brian Wang reports on new builds, commissioning tests and more in South Korea, Vietnam, China and Russia.
China's 2020 Energy Plans
Next Big Future - Brian Wang
Brian Wang reviews China's plan for its energy mix by 2020. This includes deepwater oil drilling, reducing coal use to 62% of electricity generation, and considerable new nuclear coming on-line. According to Chinese planning documents, fast reactors will be an important part of the energy mix in the future.
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